Finally, The Course Announcement 5780

Finally, The Course Announcement

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This is a first for me. If you’re reading this blog, you may notice that it is the third one I’ve done about the new Altru course called Increasing Retention. In the first blog, I talked about taking a leap of faith and how building this course is a gamble because it’s something never done in the Altru curriculum before. I angled the same sort of viewpoint in my second blog, talking about the bad dream of not being properly prepared for something.

In that second blog, I promised to come back and share the exciting news that the Altru curriculum has its first Solution Workshop on the schedule now. You don’t have to search for it on Training Central, because I’m here to provide the direct link to the course so you can sign up if you want. The class title is Blackbaud Altru Workshop: Increasing Retention and my hope is that we will all grow our understanding of how important retention is since the number of donor households seems to be shrinking every year. This makes our effort of retaining members, donors, and volunteers vital. Of course, the fact that it’s cheaper to retain than to find new is important too.

In this class we will define retention, set out some formulas for calculating your retention rate, and then discuss building a retention plan for members, donors, and volunteers. We’ll give you some tools within Altru that will help you both calculate your retention and also take actions to boost your retention rates. This is a discussion-based class, though. So as you prepare to attend, think about how you currently work to retain those vital to your organization’s survival. We will want you to share as well as take notes. Oh, and we’ll provide you with a workbook to “take home” that’s full of facts, quotes, thoughts, and activities you will work through during class.

Here’s my request, in addition to all this. It’s twofold – first, if you’re planning to attend, please consider providing feedback to us via the post-attendance survey. I dipped my toe into this pool, so I want to see how closely we are aligning with your needs. Also, feel free to reach out to me to discuss this (or any) class. Second, if you attend this first round of classes, put it on your calendar to come back and take the same class again in six months. Why? Because I have full faith that in six months you will have learned something you can share with us, and we will have additional things to teach. I know your time is valuable and I don’t want you to waste one moment of it. If after the first few sessions of the class, I feel as if a return trip won’t net you anything, I’ll come back and say so.

Did you miss my comment above that I’m happy to discuss Blackbaud University training for Altru (or any of Blackbaud’s products)? I don’t know every product, but I’ve been around a few years…I can probably steer you in the right direction. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. My email address is mary.aquino@blackbaud.com.

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2 Comments
We re-evaluate every year. As of right now, there isn't a plan to create professional for Altru, but hopefully there will be in the future. Y'all are doing an amazing job certifying!
Will there ever be a Pro Certification for Blackbaud Altru?

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